The Well of Souls
by Templarlady
Summary: A short ghost story set in the old Mill at Oxford.
1. Chapter 1

The character of Bill belongs to Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball. All other characters originate in my warped imagination.

The Well of Souls

We had decided to stay on in Oxford for a few weeks. It seemed only fair since Azaria was visiting Dan in the hospital at every opportunity she got. I gathered that he was still feeling guilty about his inability to protect her from the Warriors of Ra. But she brushed off his apologies and assured him that there was nothing he could have done. He had been outnumbered and ambushed.

He was due to be discharged in a few days and Azaria was busy planning a night out to celebrate. We had been up until almost dawn checking out bars and restaurants on the internet trying to find the most suitable place for a welcome home party.

I had slept until mid-afternoon and woke up feeling stiff and tired. Bill was lying peacefully next to me and I snuggled up against him and tried, unsuccessfully, to go back to sleep. After tossing and turning for a while I felt Bill move restlessly in his sleep and, fearing that I was disturbing him, I got up and dressed. It looked pleasant outside and I decided that perhaps a walk would do me good. I checked the kitchen cupboards and made a list, then set out on the short walk to the village.

I strolled into the small village shop and wandered around picking up the occasional item, bread, milk, newspaper, then headed up to the cash till.

There was a stout, motherly looking woman behind the till and I placed my purchases on the counter in front of her. "Good afternoon dear" she said with a smile. "You must be new around here, I thought I knew everyone in the village."

"Oh yes" I smiled. "I've just moved into the Mill House just down the Oxford Road."

"Oh! Are you the new tenant? We wondered who it would be!"

I paused for a moment wondering if it was a good idea to explain my relationship with Bill. Or even if anyone in the village knew him. I decided to go ahead, not to do so would make it seem as though I was ashamed of him. I certainly didn't want anyone to think that! "No, actually my….partner owns the house. We're just using it as a holiday home at the moment. Sort of a weekend retreat." I smiled carefully waiting for her reaction.

"Would that be Mr….now what was the name…oh yes, Mr Compton?" she asked, her face a mask of curiosity.

"Yes, that's right" I answered watching with amusement as she glanced around the empty store in a conspiratorial manner. "Isn't he a vampire?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Yes, he is" I said brightly. She looked quite excited.

"I'd heard that! Apparently he lived in the house in the 1980s with a woman, another vampire? Of course we didn't know that at the time!"

"That would be Claudia" I said with a smile. In a way I was surprised that Bill's cover hadn't been blown back in the 80's. This was obviously gossip central!

"We've never seen him in the village though" she said, sounding a little disappointed. "He's certainly never been in here!"

"Well, I don't suppose you stock anything he needs" I said.

She looked shocked for a moment and I wondered what on earth she imagined Bill's requirements were! Then she said "Oh! Of course we don't stock that synthetic blood. Do you think I should get some in? If you're going to be here for a while?"

"Oh please don't put yourself to any trouble" I said hurriedly. "We bring some with us when we come down and it does go off you know."

She smiled and gathered up my purchases, ringing them up on the till. "Tell me, have you seen any of the ghosts yet?" she asked casually.

My mouth fell open in surprise. "Ghosts?" I asked, "what Ghosts?"

"Oh there are several of them apparently, in the Mill. Did no-one mention them?" she said calmly, as if this was quite normal. "Why dear, that was why the Talbots left, and the Masters before them. The ghosts! Oh no-one ever sees them in the house itself, just the Old Mill. They say that there is a hole in the floor where they used to lower buckets down to the millpond for water, that's where they appear, up from the millpond. I remember my old grandmother used to call it The Well of Souls". She smiled brightly at me "that'll be five pounds seventy two please dear!"

I handed her the money thoughtfully. "Well, thanks" I said, a little uncertainly.

"Oh don't worry dear" she gave me a gentle smile. "They've never harmed anyone, most folk around here aren't afraid of them, just sorry for the poor things. Some psychic stayed at the Mill once, he said that he thought they were trapped here, unable to move on for some reason."

"I see" I said. "But does no-one know who they are?"

"Not that I know of" she said. "I hope you won't let it put you off the house though" she leaned forward and putted my hand encouragingly. "I look forward to seeing you again dear."

I wandered slowly back to the house, lost in thought. Ghosts, good heavens, whatever next. I let myself in and put my purchases away in the large, stone flagged kitchen, then got myself a chilled bottle of white wine from the fridge and a glass and went to sit in the garden with a book. The evening was warm and I lazed in a garden chair until it became too dark to read easily. I reluctantly picked up my book and my wine and went indoors and curled up on one of the sofas. The warmth of the room combined with the wine meant that I nearly nodded off to sleep a few times. Anastasia was coming around later for a visit and I didn't want to be half asleep when she arrived so I put the book down and just closed my eyes for a moment.

I woke with a start to feel someone gently removing the empty wineglass from my limp hand. My eyes flickered open and looked up into a pair of brilliant blue pools gazing down at me.

"Hello sleepy!" said Bill. "Mind if I join you?"

He slid onto the sofa alongside me without waiting for my reply and gathered me up in his arms for a kiss. "What have you been up to today then?" he asked with a smile.

I snuggled down into his arms and said "Well, I've been into the village for a walk, and to do some shopping. I went into the village store and was expertly interrogated by the lady who runs it. She thought that I was a new tenant and so I told her that we were using the house as a weekend retreat" I looked up at him, "I hope that was okay? I didn't see why I should try and hide it, I won't be made to feel ashamed of you or of our relationship" I said, a little defensively.

Bill gave me a long suffering look. "Well, you'll be bound to get some people who disapprove you know. So long as you're prepared for that, you tell people whatever you like.

I heard footsteps in the kitchen and a moment later Azaria came out into the hall. "Hi Alex" she turned to Bill "What time is Anastasia arriving? Have I got time to give Dan a call?"

Bill looked at his watch. "She'll be here in about an hour" he said "so, judging by the time you generally spend on the phone, probably not!"

Azaria stuck her tongue out at him and then grinned. "I shall go to my room for a little privacy!" she said, faking an offended tone of voice. I watched her leave with a smile. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a T shirt with "Blood Transfusion Service – Official Collection Point" written on it.

Bill sighed patiently "Where on earth did she get that from?" he asked.

I giggled "I think Dan gave it to her" I said "I think it's quite funny! Bill gave me a disapproving look. "Oh come on! Loosen up will you!" I said with a laugh.

He stood up and smiled down at me. "Well I'm going to take a shower before Ana arrives. Care to join me?" he asked with a suggestive little smile.

"I certainly need to do something to wake myself up or I'll be falling asleep in front of the fire." I said.

"Leave that to me" said Bill holding out his hand to me, a familiar look in his brilliant blue eyes, "I'll wake you up, I promise!"

An hour later Bill and I stepped outside feeling incredibly clean, to see Anastasia pulling her car into the little yard beside the Mill. She got out of the car and stared at the old Mill for a moment, then turned to Bill. "I never realised that you owned this place" she said, looking surprised.

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked.

"The Mill" she said "the haunted Mill? I've often meant to come out here to see it for myself, but somehow I never did. Have you seen the ghosts? I've spent hundreds of years on this earth and never seen one!"

Bill gave an impatient snort. "Not you as well? "Alex was told that nonsense by someone in the village today."

"You don't believe it?" she asked. "I remember it happening."

"You remember what happening?" asked Bill, walking with her to the front door.

"Why, the murders of course!" she said looking surprised. She turned to me "Didn't your informant give you the full story?"

"I don't think she knew" I said. "The story was just that there were ghosts in the Mill, not why."

Anastasia stepped into the hallway looking around approvingly. "I tend to forget that humans have such short memories" she said. "I suppose no-one remembers the story now."

Azaria got up from where she was sitting in the corner of the sofa and went over to Ana. "I should thank you for telling Bill where I was" she said "It was thanks to you that he was able to find me in time."

"Oh! You must be Azaria!" said Ana. "I've heard all about you my dear! I'm so glad I was able to help." She smiled at Azaria and took her hands. "You look so very young my dear" she said "except for your eyes." She reached out and stroked Azaria's cheek. "I can see the centuries in your eyes." She smiled "you're very lucky to have Bill to care for you, you know that?"

Azaria laughed. "Oh yes, I know that!" she said.

"Please, sit down" I said. "Bill, would you get some drinks?"

We sat on the sofas before the fire and waited until Bill came out of the kitchen with a tray holding three Tru Bloods and a gin and tonic.

"So what happened?" I asked sipping my drink. "What was the story?"

"Well" she said. "It happened soon after I arrived here in 1856. There was a large Manor House in the next village and the family who lived there had one son and heir. He was in his early twenties and spoilt. I'm sure you know the sort? Too much money, too little sense? His parents doted on him and gave him anything and everything he wanted until he developed a sense of entitlement that made him very dangerous to cross. He and a group of friends would come into Oxford every so often in search of a good time, which usually involved a few whores and a lot of drink. He and his friends paid well and, at first there was no trouble."

Bill took a sip of his drink and said "He came to the club? To XS?"

"Yes, he did" she replied. "In those days I kept a few girls...humans, for men who could afford to pay."

I curled up on the sofa next to Bill and tried not to show my distaste for the fact that Anastasia had evidently been running her club for vampires under the cover of a high class brothel.

"He was a thoroughly nasty piece of work and I wasn't entirely happy about having him in the club at all but, as I said, he paid well. None of the girls liked him though. He was a bully and a sadist, one of those who like to hurt a woman. I'd had to warn him once when he hit one of my girls and he seemed to behave himself a bit better after that. Then one night something happened. Too much drink was probably involved and one of the girls offended him somehow, I never really found out what had set him off, but he took a horsewhip to the girl and half killed her."

I was sitting with my arm around Bill's waist and I felt his muscles tighten up as he heard this. "What did you do?" he asked quietly.

"I got a couple of my boys to take him down to the riverside, somewhere quiet, and they beat hell out of him!"

"Vampires?" asked Bill.

"Yes. He was a big strong man, but he didn't stand a chance against them."

"Could he not have gone to the authorities and caused trouble for you?" I asked curiously.

"I was so angry I never even considered it" she said. "Yes, he could have done, but he didn't. I suppose he thought he'd be in more trouble than me" she said thoughtfully. "We didn't see him again for a while."

"What happened to the girl?" asked Azaria.

"Oh she recovered" said Ana "I paid for her care and she made a remarkable recovery, but she was scarred for life."

"And your…customer?"

"Roderick, that was his name. Roderick Courcey. As I said he didn't come back. I thought it was a good thing at the time, but I was wrong." She paused and sat staring into space for a moment, thinking. Bill and I sat waiting for her to continue, fascinated by her story and yet repulsed at the same time.

Anastasia heaved a sigh and continued. "In the village next to his father's Manor there was an orphanage. You have to understand that there was no real organisation as there is today. Children were simply left there. The boys were hired out to work on the nearby farms and the girls did cleaning and sewing. But no-one really took any notice of them, or cared much about them. Until the third girl went missing, no-one had really even noticed, children ran away, it was accepted and who could blame them? But then a farmer looking for some cattle that had broken out of a field just across the river here came down to the Mill and found a body in the millpond. They dragged the pond and found another."

"Two of the missing girls?" guessed Bill.

"Yes." Anastasia sighed. "Both girls had been badly beaten, and raped. They were eleven and thirteen years old. The bodies were taken up to the church and buried in a corner of the churchyard, some of the locals agreed to pay for the burials, but the girls had no families of course, no-one to speak up on their behalf, and so there was no investigation. But I had a nasty suspicion that I might know who was responsible so I set one of the boys from the club, a vampire, to watch the Mill. Sure enough a few nights later Roderick appeared carrying the dead body of what turned out to be a fourth girl. My watcher saw him take her into the Mill and then come out alone and leave. When he checked inside the Mill the body wasn't there. Roderick had dumped her down the well into the millpond."

Bill had gone even paler than usual. "You're telling us that he was….using these girls and then killing them? What did you do? You had to report him surely?"

"No" she said "I didn't. Firstly because my witness was a vampire, and secondly because no-one would have cared if I had. Come on William, you were turned about that time. You know how careful we had to be, not to be discovered. I dared not draw attention to me or the club and the authorities would not have been interested anyway since the victims had no wealth or position."

I was horrified and Bill didn't look too happy either, although he seemed to accept Ana's explanation. She gave a cold little smile. "Don't worry" she said. "I wasn't about to let that lowlife get away with it, or risk any more girls falling prey to his vicious lust." She turned to Bill with that same cold smile. "Do you remember Phoebe?" she asked.

Bill gave a little laugh "Oh yes! I remember her! She was truly dangerous!"

"Okay" I said "I'll ask, who was she?"

Bill turned to me with a grin. "Phoebe was a vampire who lived at the club, I met her in the 1930s. She was very old, very strong and very bad tempered. And for some reason, she hated men. Something in her past, in her human life I think. I always stayed well clear of her myself!"

"Well" said Ana, "some of Roderick's friends still came to the club occasionally and the girls and I began talking of a new girl, describing just the type of young, innocent girl who we knew Roderick would love. He had evidently told his friends that he would never go back there and so I understand they teased him about what he was missing until, one night, he turned up. He threatened my doorman with a beating if he ever told his friends that he had come back, so I knew that no-one knew where he had gone that night. He demanded to see the new girl…" she smiled at Bill and the look in her eyes frightened me.

Bill smiled back. "You gave him to Phoebe didn't you?" he said.

"Yes." Ana sat back with a satisfied smile on her face. "She knew what had happened, what he had done. I never asked her exactly what happened in her room that night, I only know that she made him pay before he died."

I shivered and I felt Bill's arm tighten around me. He gave me a gentle smile.

"We disposed of what was left of the body so that it was never found" said Ana calmly. "There was an outcry when he was missed of course. I couldn't help drawing a comparison between him and those poor girls, no-one cared enough about them to even mention that they were missing but old Mr Courcey raised hell when his precious son didn't return home."

"Was there any trouble?" asked Bill.

"No, we allowed Courcey's men to search the club, of course, as they were searching everywhere Roderick had ever been seen, but by then there was no trace of him."

She grinned. "But by some strange co-incidence no more girls ever went missing from the orphanage!"

I sat quietly leaning against Bill, wondering if I should be horrified or delighted at Roderick's fate. I thought of the four young girls and the whore he had horsewhipped and decided on delighted. I wondered if this made me a bad person, but on consideration I decided that I didn't care.

"It was about six months later that people began to speak of ghosts at the Mill" said Ana. "It was already disused by this time, but some of the local farmers used it for storage and they would tell stories of seeing clusters of lights rising up from the well. They called it "The Well of Souls". I have always assumed that the ghosts were those of the four girls whose bodies were thrown down the well."

"Those poor girls" I said sadly. "After all they have suffered, to be trapped here. I wonder why they stay?"

"Who says they're trapped" asked Bill.

"The lady at the village store said that a psychic stayed at the Mill once, that he'd claimed they were trapped here. You'd think they would want to move on." I said thoughtfully. "They say that spirits haunt a place if they have died suddenly or traumatically or if they feel they have some unfinished business."

"From what I understood they certainly died terrible deaths" said Ana, perhaps that's it?"

"But they weren't killed at the Mill were they?" I asked. "You'd think they would haunt the Manor, or wherever it was that he killed them."

Bill put his hand behind my head and turned it to look at him. "You're worrying about them aren't you?" he said. He put his arm around me and hugged me to him. "My precious little sweetheart" he murmured. "You're so tender-hearted, you want to help them don't you?"

"If it's possible, yes" I said. "They suffered enough in life, it seems wrong that they cannot find peace in death."

"I know the feeling!" muttered Bill quietly.

"Oh Bill, it's not the same thing at all!"

"I know, I know!" he said quickly "I didn't mean it. But I really don't see that there's anything we can do for them?"

I sighed. "I really don't know anything about it I'm afraid."

After that the conversation moved on to other things but I found that my mind kept drifting back to Anastasia's terrible story. Bill's eyes slid over to me every so often and I knew that he was aware of what I was thinking, he could feel the distress I felt whenever I thought about what had happened to the four orphan girls.

After Anastasia had left, towards dawn I lay in Bills arms and he turned to me and said seriously. "I want you to promise me that you won't go out there by yourself looking for ghosts okay?" I smiled sheepishly up at him. "I knew it!" he said "That's just what you were planning, right!" He brushed his lips gently against mine. "If you want to go ghost hunting that's fine, but I'll come with you! No arguments!"

I woke again in mid-afternoon and got up so as not to disturb Bill. I was restless and decided to go out for some fresh air so I headed back towards the village. I was just walking aimlessly as I didn't know my way around yet and I turned a corner and found myself outside the village church. The churchyard looked cool and shady and so I wandered in and began strolling through around the outer wall, glancing occasionally at the old gravestones. Eventually I came to the far corner of the churchyard and sat down on the broken wall under a great beech tree for a rest. Tucked into the corner of the wall were three old gravestones, cracked and broken, each one stained with lichen. I glanced down at them and was surprised to see that they were blank. At first I thought that perhaps they were so old that the inscriptions had worn off, but on closer inspection it appeared that no inscriptions had ever marred the stone. I squatted on the ground before them, puzzled, and suddenly I realised what they must be. These were the graves of the three girls who had been so brutally murdered by Roderick Courcey in 1865.

I reached out to touch the stone. Feeling the rough pitted granite beneath my fingers somehow made Anastasia's story more real to me. The tale I had listened to while tucked up in Bills arms in the flickering firelight last night might have been the plot of some movie or something I had read in a book. But now, as I ran my fingers across a great crack down the first gravestone, I suddenly appreciated that it was real. The terrible story Ana had told us had actually happened.

As I crouched before the stones I suddenly felt eyes on me and I looked up to see a tall, stooped man standing in the porch of the church, watching me silently. He didn't move but his concentration on me made me feel distinctly uneasy and I rose, brushing the dirt from my jeans and walked quickly away.

We had arranged to take Azaria over to Claudia's place that night as Dan had been discharged from the hospital earlier that day and Chris had picked him up and taken him home with him. He and Azaria were going out to celebrate his recovery and Bill had agreed that Azaria could stay at Claudia's for the day. We all congratulated Dan on how well he was looking and then left them alone.

Claudia spent a few more moments assuring Bill that Azaria would be fine. Eventually he was satisfied and we got back in the car and headed home. As I leaned back in the comfortable seat I began to feel heat building up inside me. For a moment I was puzzled and then I suddenly realised what it was and turned to Bill. He glanced sideways at me and smiled. "Well, we've got the rest of the night to ourselves."

"Do you have any plans?" I asked, knowing full well what he had in mind.

"Oh yes!" he said. "I plan to make love to you in every single room in the house…..except maybe the third floor, it's a bit too dusty!"

I laughed. "I'm excused the third floor? That's very generous of you."

"Hmm…..maybe twice in some of the other rooms to make up for it!" he purred.

I reached over and put my hand on his thigh. "Sounds like fun…but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up with you…..especially now, after Mab's gift!" I ran my hand gently up his thigh and the powerful car gave a slight twitch as he gripped the wheel harder and speeded up slightly. "Easy now." I said "I'd like to get back in one piece please."

"Maybe you'd better keep your hands to yourself then!" he said with a grin.

I placed my hands ostentatiously in my lap and then noticed that Bill's eyes were drawn down to my hand resting on the top of my thigh. "Eyes on the road please!" I said firmly.

We arrived back at the Mill House in record time and Bill reversed the car round into the small yard between the house and the Mill. I unfastened my seatbelt and leaned over, sliding my hand into his shirt and rubbing it over the hair on his stomach, my fingers probing down to the waistband of his trousers, below which there was a substantial bulge already straining at the cloth. Bill stopped the car and leaned back in his seat with a groan. I leaned over a little further and pressed my lips to his in a long, deep kiss. He sat still and watched me for a moment.

"Do you think we ought to check the Mill for ghos…..?"

Before I had got the words out Bill was at my door and reaching in for me. He picked me up and carried me to the door, then put me down and fumbled in his pocket for the keys. I reached up and put my hands around his neck, pulling his face down for another kiss and he leaned into me, his cool lips pressing on mine as he fought to turn the key in the lock. After a short struggle the door opened and he picked me up in one arm, his lips still fastened on mine, swung me into the hallway and kicked the door shut behind him. I put my arms around his neck and clung to him as his kiss deepened and became more sensuous, slower, his tongue gently parting my lips and sliding in to caress mine. He had one arm around my waist and he pulled my body closer, pressing my stomach against the bulge in his cotton trousers.

Suddenly he lifted his mouth from mine and looked down at me, my body held tight against his, his eyes wide with excitement. He looked over at the two leather sofas in front of the fire and grinned down at me for a moment. Then I was lifted and carried over to the nearest sofa. They were facing the fire and therefore had their backs to us and Bill turned me around and tossed me over the padded leather back. The top of the sofa back came just up to his hips and so my feet were off the floor.

"Hey! Get me down from here!" I laughed, wriggling. Unfortunately he had stepped up behind me and the position meant that my bottom was pressed up against his groin. Wriggling probably wasn't a very good idea…..well, not if I wanted to get down anyway!

For once I was wearing a skirt and Bill had evidently decided to take advantage of this unusual occurrence as I felt his cool hands sliding up my thighs, his fingers wriggled under the thin cotton of my panties, and with a quick tug, he ripped them off. I reached down and braced my hands against the leather seat, my hair trailing down over the cushions.

"Woah! Just a minute!" Up until now my hormones had been in charge, the softness of Bill's lips on mine, the cool tenderness of his hands, the hardness of his erection pressed into my stomach, I hadn't been able to think of anything else…..… suddenly my brain cut in with a complaint that I appeared to be hanging head down over the back of a sofa! Bill's hand slid under my hips and I felt his long fingers probing down between my legs.

He pushed my skirt up over my hips and pressed himself against me, leaning forward and moving his other hand across the skin of my stomach and up towards my breasts. "Are you ready for me?" he whispered softly. I felt a spasm as muscles clenched deep inside me and my hormones kicked my brain out of the driving seat and jumped back in.

"Oh yes…..please Bill!" I murmured. I felt him back up a little as he fumbled with the fastening on the waistband of his trousers, then there was a metallic sound as he tugged at the zipper and then his hands were back on my hips, lifting me, pulling me back and he was in me, driving himself deep into my soft warmth, crushing my hips and stomach against the cool, smoothness of the leather. I reached out desperately feeling for something, anything to hold on to and grasped a cushion. It wasn't much, but it was all I had as I hung, helpless, in Bill's strong hands. I clung to it as he drove himself into me growling softly to himself with each long stroke.

Maybe it was the slight dizziness but it seemed to be only moments before a wave of pleasure engulfed me and I moaned and shuddered as Bill gave a snarling roar and I felt the shattering explosion of his climax hit me through the blood bond.

Bill sighed and stood upright. "Oh my God….I've wanted to do that ever since I first set eyes on this sofa!" he gasped.

"Will you get me off here please! I'm getting dizzy. The blood's rushing to my head" I called weakly, my head resting on the sofa cushions.

Bill picked me up gently and carried me over to the fireside where he sat down on the rug holding me carefully in his lap.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a slightly apologetic tone of voice. "You weren't too uncomfortable?" He gave a little chuckle "I'm sorry really, I just really, really wanted to do that...you didn't mind too much?"

I gave a little laugh "I didn't mind at all, although I'd rather be a little more upright next time. If that's all right with you?"

"I'll take you in any position you like" murmured Bill leaning over and kissing me gently.

"So" I said, still panting slightly. "Do you habitually assess items of furniture for their potential as sex aids?"

"Not all of them!" he said defensively "Although I've got plans for that oak table in the kitchen!" He looked down at me with a wickedly sexy smile, his soft chocolate brown hair falling over his forehead.

"Oh Bill, no. I eat my meals off that!" I said, shocked.

"Oddly enough, eating my meals off it was exactly what I had in mind!" he replied licking his lips and eyeing my breasts through my torn shirt hungrily. He laid me down gently on the rug and carefully removed my shirt then lay down beside me.

"You just relax and rest" he murmured, so I closed my eyes obediently and lay back on the fur rug only to discover that Bill's idea of me relaxing involved him removing what remained of my clothing. Still, it was nice and warm in front of the fire and Bill's hands felt deliciously cool against my skin. Bill's lips felt cool as well when he began to gently kiss me, moving from my lips down to my breasts where he lingered for a while, suckling gently on my nipples before moving down leaving a trail of kisses across my stomach, dragging his tongue down to my thighs where he set about licking me clean.

By the time he was satisfied I had just about dissolved into a pool of relaxed contentment on the rug. He began to lick me a little more firmly, pushing the tip of his tongue into me and drawing it slowly across my soft folds until I was moaning with anticipation. He rose up on his knees and crouched over me a deep purring growl coming from his chest as he pressed his rigid member against my stomach and leaned down to kiss my lips. "Nice and relaxed now?" he purred.

"Oh yes Bill...please, now!" I whispered and in response he slid his knees apart and lowered himself down onto me, gently easing himself into my warm, soft, welcoming flesh. He shifted slightly, propping himself up on his elbows but I stopped him. "No, don't do that, I like to feel your weight on me" I murmured. He smiled gently and began to kiss me deeply as he rocked his hips, driving himself in deeper, inch by delicious inch. I pushed my hands into his hair and pulled his beautiful muscular body down against me, kissing him back as waves of rapture began to ripple through me again and again until I no longer knew if I was feeling my own pleasure, or his.

He pulled his lips from mine and began to nuzzle at my neck, trailing tiny little kisses down from my jawline to the hollow beneath my chin. I could feel the slight pressure of his fangs against my skin and I pushed my head back, offering my throat to him. He gave a little sigh and bit down, his fangs slicing neatly into my flesh with a familiar sharp pain which was burned out immediately on a rising tide of pleasure as he held my body tight in his arms and drove himself into me, his pulsing shaft pouring out his essence even as his lips drew out mine.

Afterwards we lay on the rug before the flickering fire, in each others arms, our bodies still locked together, my head resting on Bill's shoulder. He pressed his lips to my hair and murmured "Was that more comfortable?" I could feel his lips curving into a little smile.

"Mmm….much more comfortable" I murmured back.

"I must remember that" he whispered "I'll add it to my collection of things you enjoy!"

"Oh I'm not saying I didn't enjoy...I glanced over at the sofa...it was just different!"

Bill's arm tightened around me and he gave a little chuckle. "So…..what shall we do next?"

I gave a little sigh. "Well, you're the man with all the ideas!" I whispered, "you tell me."

Bill brushed the hair back from my face gently and whispered "would you like that? Would you like me to tell you what I want to do?"

I felt a delicious little shiver run through me at the thought. "Why don't you try it and see?" I whispered back.

He snuggled down against me and began kissing me gently starting at my collarbone and working up my neck to my ear. When he reached my ear he curled his tongue around the lobe and sucked at it for a moment and then began whispering softly. His voice washed over me like sweet syrup trickling into my ear bringing a gradual arousal as I lay in his arms. After a minute of so of listening to Bill's erotic requirements I discovered what I imagined he had known all along. That a woman's most sensitive erogenous zone is not between her legs, but between her ears! My heart began to speed up and my breathing became heavier. After a few more minutes I felt that if Bill didn't put some of these theories into practice right now I would either simply die or melt into a pool of desperate longing on the rug.

Bill's vivid imagination was evidently having a similar effect on him since I could feel him swelling and stiffening inside me and I pressed myself against him, encouragingly, feeling his own desire for me through the bond. My eyes were closed and I was lying with my head on his shoulder so I was shocked when he gave a sudden gasp and pulled back from me.

"What's up sweetie? Not changed your mind I hope?" I whispered, leaning forward to kiss him. To my surprise he backed away further, his eyes wide with shock. He glanced down at my body and snatched his hands away from me. I looked up at him, puzzled, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine" he said somewhat shakily "it's you I'm worried about!"

I held my hand up and to my complete surprise, saw a faint blue light glowing on my skin. "What the….?"

"It's all over you…..it looks like the light that was around your hand when you broke the silver chain holding Azaria" he said softly, staring at me in astonishment.

I looked down to see the faint blue flickering light covered me from head to toe, running over my skin like water. "Oh my….!" I froze on the rug.

"Are you okay? Can you feel it?" asked Bill. He put out his hand tentatively and gently brushed it down my arm. The flickering light seemed to die down under his touch and then rise up again as it passed. "I can feel a slight tingling….that's all."

"I don't feel anything" I said "I didn't even know!" We lay side by side staring at each other in wonder. "It must be the same thing. Queen Mab said that the power of the Fae came from emotions, fear, anger, passion, lust….well I've certainly been feeling the last two!"

Bill gazed at me thoughtfully. "That can't be it though. This didn't happen when we were…well, when we were on the sofa just now." He gave an embarrassed little cough. "Are you sure you were enjoying it?" he asked worriedly. "You didn't just say that to make me feel better?"

"Of course I was!" I said reassuringly "but..."

"But what?"

"But I wasn't thinking about it" I said. "I didn't have time really did I? But just now...I was thinking about...us, consciously, feeling both my pleasure and yours. Perhaps it's because I can feel your emotions as well, tap into them too..." I looked up at him with a smile. "Lust is a very powerful emotion you know. I've read all those Denis Wheatley novels. When people want to work black magic they almost always have orgies. It must be to tap into the power of the emotions. And now I seem to be able to tap into it as well."

"Um...what do you plan to do with it?" asked Bill carefully, looking down at our entwined bodies. "I'm in rather a delicate position here, remember!"

I giggled and then realised that actually, it was a very good question. I thought for a moment and then reached over and placed my hand flat on the stone floor. I closed my eyes and thought of Bill's cool flesh against mine, his hands on my skin, the feel of him moving at the centre of my being and I imagined the feelings flowing out of my hand into the stone. I heard Bill give a little sigh and opened my eyes to see the flickering light moving over my body. I felt the power moving down my arm and grounding itself harmlessly into the floor. In seconds it was gone as though it had never happened. Bill gave a little sigh of relief and withdrew himself carefully from my body. We sat up and gazed at one another in the firelight, slightly shocked but also curious.

"Do you think that might happen again?" asked Bill hesitantly. "Whenever we make love?"

"I don't know" I said "but you said it didn't hurt you, and I couldn't feel it at all. Perhaps I can...practice. Learn to control it. But I don't think it'll hurt you."

Bill looked a little doubtful and I must say I could understand his reluctance to trust my ability to control a completely unknown power. But he gave me a hug. "Perhaps it likes me" he suggested, with a smile. "If I'm careful not to upset you it might even make our lovemaking better...who knows?"


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days were fairly normal. Azaria returned the following night, full of excitement at the great time she'd had with Dan. He appeared to have made a full recovery, thank goodness and he had made a statement to the Police about the man who had assaulted him and snatched Azaria. They had a strong suspicion that they knew who this man was and arranged for Dan to go in later in the week to attend an Identity Parade.

Bill and I also went down the the Police Station one evening to make statements about our involvement in the case of the recent murders of the two girls and the rescue of the other three. Bill and Ulrich also met with Inspector Felton and his boss one evening to discuss how to deal with Clovis, who was currently under strict guard, supervised by vampire security which had been provided by Ulrich on behalf of The Authority. They were very keen to be seen to co-operate fully with the Police in this matter.

The rest of the time Bill, Azaria and I spent relaxing at the Mill House. Although I have to admit that, after dark, I kept a wary eye on the Mill, just in case! I took Bill for a walk one evening to the village and showed him the three neglected, overgrown graves in the corner of the churchyard. He knelt beside them with his head bowed and ran his fingers over the blank stones.

"No-one even remembered their names" he whispered sadly. "Or perhaps, no-one cared enough to ask. Even I have done better than that, my grave at least has my name on it."

I put my hand gently on his shoulder. "You have a grave?" I asked softly.

He turned and smiled sadly up at me. "Yes, I have." He heaved a great sigh. "When I failed to return home from the war it was assumed that I had perished somewhere on the battlefield and that my body lay undiscovered somewhere, like so many others. There was a family plot in the Bon Temps cemetery and Caroline put up a stone to my memory." He had turned away from me and as I watched a drop of bright red blood fell onto the blank grey stone, followed by another. I slipped my hand up the back of his neck into his thick soft hair and gently stroked his bowed head in silence. What can you possibly say to a man weeping over the memory of his wife putting up a memorial stone to her dead husband?

After a moment Bill turned to me and stood up, two crimson trails running down his pale cheeks, his eyes dark pools of sorrow in his milk white face. "I'm sorry...I..." he said hesitantly. I felt in the pocket of my jeans for a tissue and handed it to him. He gave me a weak little smile and wiped his eyes. Then he reached down and brushed the dirt from the knees of his jeans and put his arm around me. We walked together out of the churchyard and back home in companionable silence.

The next evening I had got up an hour before dusk and cooked myself a meal in the huge stone flagged kitchen before Bill rose. I was just standing at the sink washing up the few dishes I had used when I happened to glance out of the window. The kitchen window looked out across the yard to the Mill and the river. The sun was just setting, throwing deep shadows across the yard and just for a moment I thought I caught a glimpse of someone standing in the open doorway to the Mill, but when I looked back there was nothing but shadow and the darkness of the interior of the building.

I stared out of the window, peering into the shadows, trying hard to see into the darkness, which is probably why I failed to hear or sense Bill come up from the cellar and put his hands around my waist. I screamed with shock and jumped back banging my hip painfully on the edge of the sink.

"Ow! Dammit Bill that hurt! How many times have I got to tell you not to sneak up on me like that!" I snapped at him.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you!" He picked me up carefully and carried me over to the kitchen table, setting me down gently on the edge and sliding my cotton trousers down over my bruised hip to examine it.

I leaned forward and rested my forehead on his chest. My heart was pounding as if I had just run a race and I had broken out in a cold sweat with fright. "It's okay, it's just a bruise. I'll be fine honey, honestly. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, you just gave me a fright that's all."

Bill put his hand under my chin, tilted my face upwards and looked down at me seriously. "That was more than just a fright!" he said "I can feel your heart racing from here, whatever's the matter?"

"I just..." I paused, feeling foolish. "Well, I just thought that I saw someone in the doorway to the Mill, that's all."

Bill looked down at me with a tiny smile. "You thought you saw a ghost?" he said gently "and then I crept up on you from behind! No wonder you got a fright!" He leaned forward and kissed my forehead gently. "Shall we go and take a look? I'll hold your hand, I promise!"

I glared up at him angrily. "Don't tease me Bill, I'm serious about this. I can't believe that you, a vampire, are trying to tell me you don't believe in ghosts!"

He reached over and took hold of me by the hips, taking care not to hurt my bruise, and lifted me down from the table. "It's not that I don't believe in them" he said "but I've walked this earth in the darkness for a hundred and forty years and in all that time I've never seen one!" he stopped suddenly and looked back at the kitchen table. "Damn! I had plans for that table!" he said grinning at me. "I can't believe I had you up on there and didn't do anything about it!" he shook his head ruefully. "I must be losing my grip!"

I sniggered. "Come on...I need you as a bodyguard remember! Some other time perhaps." I reached into a kitchen cupboard and pulled out a large powerful looking torch. Bill opened the kitchen door with a sweeping gesture. "Any time you need your body guarding sweetheart, you have only to ask!" We went out into the yard giggling and walked over to the Mill.

I switched on the torch and stepped cautiously through the open doorway. The interior of the Mill was cool and dark, three stories high, the echoing, empty space above us reaching up to the heavy wooden beams far overhead. As I shone the torch into the darkness I could feel Bill's presence directly behind me, tense and ready to spring ahead of me at any moment. He reached forward and gently put his hand on my shoulder. "What did you think you saw?" he asked quietly.

"I'm not sure" I said hesitantly "I just thought I saw a shadowy figure in the doorway, but there's no-one here now is there?" I shone the torch into every dark corner and saw nothing. I was confident that if anyone was in here with us, Bill would know. "Oh well" I sighed "I guess I must have been mistaken." Even as I spoke, I felt it. A shiver of power which made the hairs on my arms rise. I glanced at Bill, but he did not appear to have noticed anything. "Bill!" I hissed. "Something's coming! I can feel it!"

Bill immediately stepped up beside me and I could hear a low rumbling growl coming from him as he looked warily around the Mill. "What is it?" he asked. "I don't see anything?" At that moment the torch went out. I gave a squeak and shook it but nothing happened. Just as I was thinking that I'd better get out of here as I couldn't see anything, I realised that actually, I could. There was light coming from somewhere. I looked over to the well and froze. There was a glow coming up through the well from the millpond beneath our feet.

We watched, astounded as the illumination grew brighter and a small sphere of golden light about the size of a tennis ball rose up from the well and hovered in the air above it. As we watched, it was joined by two more. They hovered in the air for a moment and then sank back down into the millpond and disappeared.

I let out a breath which I hadn't realised that I was holding until that moment. "Okay Mr "I've walked this earth for a hundred and forty years and never seen a ghost!" what was that then?" I asked. Bill was still staring, entranced, at the well. He turned slowly to me "I have no idea!" he said. "But I'd guess it explains the stories."

"The lady in the village store told me that the ghosts came up from the millpond through the well so I suppose that's right." My heart had just about slowed down to a normal pace when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck lift up. They way they do when you can feel that someone is watching you. A breath of air blew in from the open doorway behind us bringing with it a faint scent. I saw Bill's nostrils flare in the dim light as he caught it. It was a slight smell but unpleasant, something rotten, and damp. We both turned slowly to face the door and saw the figure I had glimpsed earlier standing in the shadows. As we watched, it came out into the strip of moonlight shining in through the doorway.

It was a young girl with dark hair, wet hair, plastered to her head and dripping onto the stone floor. She wore a faded skirt which ended just above the ankles, on her feet were sodden leather shoes, the metal buckles brown with rust. A tattered blouse under a rough homespun apron covered her chest and a ragged shawl was wrapped around her shoulders. Water dripped from her clothing and her flesh was pale and very slightly bloated. Her eyes appeared to be blue but were covered with a filmy layer like a cataract.

I went to move forward but Bill stopped me. "Alex, no!" he said "there's nothing there!"

"You can't see her?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yes, I can see her and I can smell her. But that's all. There's no heartbeat, no breathing, absolutely nothing. She's not there! She's not...real!"

I stared at him for a moment and then turned back to the girl. She took a step towards me and Bill stepped forward to block her. Her head turned towards him and I felt her terror of him, deep inside me.

I put out my hand to stop Bill. "Wait!" I said "She's afraid of you."

Bill eyed me with a patient expression. "I get that a lot!" he said.

"No, no you don't understand, she's not afraid of you because you're a vampire. She's afraid of you because you're a man!" I said.

Bill gaped at me. "How could you possibly know that?" he asked.

"I don't know" I answered. "But it's the truth, I just know it."

Something seemed to strike Bill suddenly and he said "Oh! Yes, I see!"

"Just back off a little would you?" I said pushing on his chest slightly. He paused for a moment and then moved back a few paces, reluctantly, still tensed for action.

The girl took another step towards me and reached out as if to touch me. A flare of blind panic raced through me and she suddenly stepped back. I looked down to see the now familiar flame of the fae power flickering over me. I raised my hand and she backed off further. "Okay" I said, feeling a fraction more comfortable. "So long as we understand one another! Now, why are you here? What do you want from me?"

As I watched her I felt relief flood over me and I knew, somehow, that it came from her. Somehow I knew that she had been waiting here, waiting for a hundred and fifty years for someone to ask her this question, to help her. She turned and walked towards the doorway and I felt a strong pull, a compulsion to follow her. She paused in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder at me. I took a deep breath and followed her out of the door. Bill was right behind me. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed.

"Following her!" I said

"Why?" he asked in an exasperated tone. "And where to?"

"I don't know" I said "We'll find out when we get there."

Bill and I followed the girl out of the Mill and down past the millpond in the bright moonlight. As she began to walk along the river bank below the millpond it became more difficult to see her, as if the further she got from the Mill the weaker she became. She stopped before a great willow tree on the river bank and I noticed that I could see the bark of the tree through her flesh. She looked at me with a hopeful expression in her filmy blue eyes and disappeared.

"Okay" said Bill patiently. "Now what?"

I stood on the bank staring out at the moonlit river. "Three graves" I said thoughtfully.

"What?"

"There were only three graves" I said. "One girl was found floating in the millpond, another was found when Ana's henchman saw Roderick take her body to the Mill. The third was found when they dragged the pond. But she said that four girls went missing, so where's the fourth? She couldn't have been in the millpond or she'd have been found when they searched it. Maybe her body was washed out into the river. Maybe it's here, caught up in the roots of the willow."

Bill gave me another patient look and sighed. "You want me to start digging?" he asked.

I put my hand on his chest. "It's not for me, it's for her."

Bill put his arms around me and gave me a hug. "Yes, I know." He pulled me to him and kissed me gently. "Let's go and get a shovel then."

Hours later, just a few hours before dawn, Bill climbed up out of the hole he had dug between the roots of the great willow tree. I sat on the ground holding a lantern but the moonlight was bright enough to show us what lay tangled in the roots. The bones looked small and lonely in the ghostly white light. The shreds of a woollen shawl were tangled amongst the ribs and the remains of a long cloth skirt lay around the legs. Amongst the bones of the feet were scraps of rotted leather and two rusty metal buckles. Bill squatted down beside me and pulled out his phone.

Within the hour a Police forensic team had gathered on the river bank. Bill had told them at the outset that the body had been there for a very long time but I understood that they had to be sure. As we watched the technicians setting up lights I heard another car arriving and we saw a pair of headlights sweep across the bridge and pull up outside the Mill.

A familiar figure got out and walked over to us.

"Good evening Inspector Felton" said Bill, a little wryly. "I'm sorry to have dragged you from your bed."

The Inspector smiled at him. "Found me another body have you Mr Compton?" he asked.

"Well, there's not very much left of her I'm afraid" said Bill.

"Her?" The Inspector's ears seemed to prick up at this. "You know who she was?"

"I think so" said Bill quietly. "I understand that four girls went missing here in about 1856 or thereabouts. Three of the bodies were found in the millpond here, they are buried in a corner of the churchyard in the village, but the fourth was never found. It seems likely that this is her don't you think?"

The Inspector looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes, I remember the story vaguely" he said. He looked curiously at Bill. "But I was born here, I've lived here all my life, you've only just moved in haven't you? How did you know about this?"

Bill looked back up at the house "Well, actually I've owned this house since the 1930's although I haven't spent much time here before now. It's always been let out before. I heard the story from a friend of mine who was here when it happened."

The Inspector's brow furrowed for a moment and he seemed about to challenge this statement, but then he appeared to grasp what Bill was saying. "A vampire? Your friend is a vampire who was here in 1856?" He stared at Bill for a moment. "And does he know what happened, your friend? Do you know?"

Bill sighed and said quietly "Yes Inspector, I know. It's a long and not very pleasant story and it happened a long time ago. I'll tell you the story if you want me to but please believe me when I say that the murderer was punished for what he did!"

Inspector Felton was silent for a moment. "I've seen a little of the paperwork in our archives, what little there is. Someone else disappeared at the same time, the son of some local landowner, nasty piece of work from what I can gather. Did he have anything to do with it?"

Bill stood, equally silent for a moment and then gave the Inspector a little nod. Felton gave a little sigh and nodded to himself. "I suspected as much, and your friend...?" Bill said nothing and the Inspector stood for a moment in thought. "You've always struck me as a man with a strong sense of justice Mr Compton" he said after a moment. Then he straightened up and appeared to shake himself. "Well" he said, beckoning to a couple of constables who were walking towards us from the river bank "it looks like you need a historian Mr Compton, not a Police Officer." He turned to the constables. "Well, what did forensics say?"

"They reckon the body's been there for at least a hundred years Sir, probably more" said the first constable. "Nothing that we need to worry about. The vicar's arrived . He wants to know if we should call an undertaker, and what will happen to the bones?"

"Perhaps you would ask him to make the arrangements for her burial?" asked Bill "I'll be glad to pay any fees."

"Ah, here he is now Sir" said the constable. We turned to see a tall, thin, stooped man in a dusty black suit walking gingerly along the river bank towards us. With a slight start I recognised him as the man I had seen watching me in the churchyard. That explained it then!

"Mr Rushworth" said the Inspector turning to the vicar. "This is Mr Compton. He owns the Mill."

"Ah yes!" said the vicar, peering at Bill over his spectacles. "You're the vampire then?" I noticed Inspector Felton rolling his eyes, out of sight of the vicar.

Bill smiled. "Yes that's right" he said. "I would be happy to pay for this poor girl's bones to be buried with her friends in your churchyard….if you think that would be appropriate?"

"Oh, yes! Yes certainly" said the vicar. "I understand that the Police have no interest in the remains?" he asked.

"That's right Sir" said the Inspector. "Our forensics people say they are well over a hundred years old. There's a limit to what we can do in these circumstances I'm afraid."

Bill gazed out over the river to where the forensic team were packing up. "All we can do for this poor child is to bury her bones, and may God have mercy on her soul" he said softly.

The vicar looked up, startled and stared at Bill for a moment. Bill seemed to feel his eyes on him and turned. "Is something wrong Mr Rushworth?" he asked with a polite smile.

"No, not at all" said the vicar. "I was a little surprised, that's all." Bill raised an eyebrow. "I…um…..didn't really expect you to have any faith in God's mercy Mr Compton….in the circumstances."

"Circumstances…..?" asked the Inspector, looking obviously confused. Bill, on the other hand, merely looked resigned. "Since, as a vampire of course, he has no soul" explained Mr Rushworth quite calmly, as if he were explaining something perfectly obvious, to a child. Something as normal as the fact that Bill had brown hair or blue eyes.

I must admit that I thought the Inspector, who had always struck me as a very open-minded man, looked quite shocked at this pronouncement, but Bill just gave me a tiny smile. I guessed he was used to this. He turned back to the vicar and said "Perhaps I could ask you to make the necessary arrangements on my behalf?" He gave him a rather chilly smile "it probably wouldn't be appropriate for me to do it myself….in the circumstances." The vicar looked a little abashed at this and hurriedly agreed to make the funeral arrangements himself. Bill gave him a little nod and put his arm around me. "I think that's probably all Inspector, I'll be up at the house if you need me." He gave a somewhat dismissive nod to the vicar and we turned and strolled back up to the house.

The funeral was held two nights later. Mr Rushworth, showing a little more consideration than I might have expected "in the circumstances" had arranged for it to be held in the evening so that Bill could attend. Which was only fair, since he was paying for it. We stood hand in hand, beside the grave which had been carefully dug in the corner of the churchyard, beside the others and looked down on the plain wooden coffin.

"We still don't know her name" I murmured quietly.

"I don't think she minds" answered Bill.

Someone had alerted the local press and a photographer was diligently trying to photograph me and Bill, but was being severely hampered by Azaria. She had been out with Dan the night we found the bones but had insisted on coming with us to the funeral and was determined that we would not be bothered by reporters! We waited at the lychgate for her to catch up and walked back home together.

When we got back Azaria headed downstairs to her room and I made for the fridge for a glass of wine. I felt I needed it! As I opened the fridge door I suddenly felt something. A pulling sensation. I stood up and looked out of the kitchen window at the Mill. I turned to Bill who was standing beside the kitchen table watching me.

"She's back!" I said.

"What?" he said. "But why?"

"Lets go and find out." I was through the door before I'd finished the words but Bill was beside me when I got across the yard. I walked carefully through the door, Bill holding tight to my hand, and looked around. She was standing by the well, just where I had seen her before. But she was different this time. I let go of Bill's hand and walked towards her, marvelling at the change in her appearance. Her long skirt was made of a blue and brown check and her blouse was crisp and white. A clean apron covered the front of the skirt and a warm looking woollen shawl hung from her shoulders. The metal buckles on her shoes were shiny and caught the faint moonlight, gleaming under the hem of her skirt. Her skin was clear and rosy and her blue eyes watched me with a bright interest. She smiled at me and then her eyes moved to look over my shoulder.

I turned to see that Bill had flattened himself against the wall beside the door. As I watched, wide-eyed, I saw the three lights that we had seen several nights ago. They drifted into the Mill through the open doorway, darted over to the girl and began to spin around her. She watched them with a delighted expression and I saw her lips move as though she was speaking to them, although I could hear nothing.

Gradually the movement of the lights slowed and they began to expand until three figures stood around the girl. Three other girls in similar clothing who reached out their hands and formed a circle around her. Their skin glowed with a soft golden light and as we watched the light grew brighter until we could hardly look at it. Just as I was about to look away I saw the girl in the centre of the circle turn her head and smile at me, a gentle, grateful smile, and then suddenly they were gone.

Bill and I stood frozen for a moment and then I stepped forward towards the well. Bill jumped forwards and grabbed my hand. "Careful!" he whispered. "Can you feel anything?"

I stood beside the well and looked around, trying to feel for anything in the darkness. "No, nothing! They're gone." I turned back to Bill with a smile. "I think I understand now! They were the ghosts here, not her! They were separated from her somehow and were waiting for her, waiting for her to be found and buried with them. They were her friends and they wouldn't leave without her!"

Hours later, just before dawn Bill and I lay entwined together in the bed downstairs in the old wine cellar. He had made love to me slowly and gently, but somehow something felt wrong, his usual fire was missing. I reached out through the bond to him and felt a vague sense of distress.

Snuggling up into his arms I laid my head on his chest and asked "what's wrong sweetheart?"

Bill looked down at me for a moment. "I can't hide anything from you can I?" he asked ruefully.

"No, you can't" I said. "So what is it?"

Bill heaved a sigh and rolled onto his back. "It's just all this talk of souls" he said. "You heard the Reverend, he gave us the Church's line – "vampires have no soul." You remember how Clovis said that he didn't fear the True Death?" Bill turned to look at me. "Well, I do. I fear it." He stared at me with a bleak expression in his beautiful eyes. "I was brought up as a good Christian. I took my family to church every Sunday, not just because it was the custom, but because I had faith. But when..." his voice faltered and failed. "Well, I guess I must have lost it along the way somewhere. I always believed that when I died, something of me would survive, go on somehow. That I would see my wife and family again..." He turned to me, his blue eyes glazed with pink from unshed tears. "But what if they're right Alex? What if I have lost my soul...what then? Will I end up like those girls, lost, waiting in the darkness for a redemption that will never come? Or will everything I was, be just...gone? What will become of me?"

I reached over and gently stroked his pale cheek. "Oh sweetheart" I said "I don't believe that for a moment. How can they say that every vampire is the same...they're not, you know that better than anyone. Black or white, good or evil, things are never that simple are they? I believe that you have a soul."

"Why?" he asked quietly.

I lay back and thought for a moment, trying to find the words to explain what I felt in my heart. "I'm no theologian" I said hesitantly, "but I think that maybe peoples' souls are all different. Perhaps some are stronger than others. I remember hearing something when I was a child which made quite an impression on me. I can't quite remember what it was, a story or a poem, but it said that every evil thing you do diminishes your soul. That would mean that some people, if they were evil in life, may lose their souls when they are turned, but I don't believe that happens to everyone. I think that you were a good man in life Bill, with a strong, healthy soul and that when you were turned, your soul was damaged, severely. But you didn't lose it. And that after a while, it began to try to repair itself." I gazed across into the deep blue pools of his eyes. "You've told me how, when you were first turned and you lived with Lorena, you surrendered to the darkness, what was it you said? "I became the monster." But that, after a while you began to change. You began to struggle to regain your humanity. I think that was your soul trying to restore itself. And that everything you've done since then has had an effect on it."

He was lying on his side in still silence watching me. "I know there's darkness in you still, I've seen it. But there's good in you as well, I've seen that too. You've tried to live a good life, even before the Revelation when I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for you, you still tried. And I believe that since then every good thing you've done has enhanced your soul, enabled it to grow, to recover from the trauma of your turning."

I fell silent and watched him think about this.

"Do you really believe that?" he asked softly.

"Yes, I really do" I said firmly "I simply cannot believe that a soulless monster would have deliberately put himself before a man with a gun and taken half a dozen bullets for me. You might have known that they probably wouldn't kill you, but you couldn't possibly have been sure. What happened to Marcus could just as easily have happened to you. You risked your life to protect me, no monster would do that."

Bill gave the ghost of a smile. "Don't think I haven't wondered why I did that myself!" he said grimly. "I simply didn't think about it. I just knew I couldn't bear to lose you...that I loved you. Perhaps it was purely selfish." He gave a sigh. "You don't think you're just being optimistic? Trying to see me in a good light?"

"No" I answered. "I'd like to see the world through a nice rosy glow believe me! I'd love to believe that there are no monsters out there, but there are! I've met some of them. Lazlo, Clovis, even Morgan, and humans too, like Roderick Courcey, they were true monsters. I can easily believe that the Church is right about them, but not you, nor others like you."

Bill reached over and gathered me into his arms. He kissed me tenderly and as we lay quietly together I reached out again through the bond and felt nothing but a silent contentment and peace.


End file.
